you know even the slightest thing about hardware???

Don't be snotty. Perhaps it's you who doesn't know? Read on. I've gone the distance in refurbishing old laptops. This project is likely to be $100, maybe less depending on what we find. If you can't spend anything, whew, going to be hell.

I've put a SATA drive in a 486SX from 1999. Adapters exist. No, you won't get top speed, but it beats hell out of an HDD.

Update the BIOS first! That can make or break upgrades. Never had an ASUS, worked on plenty, they seem pretty solid on that count.

Look up "max RAM" for that exact model. That can be a real limitation, but I'd bet you could cram at least 4GB, if not 8GB. And remember, manufacturer specs can often be exceeded. Check ASUS, then see what people have said in forums. I've doubled what the maker says is possible many, many times.

Can't speak to a distro, but you need to get an SSD in there and boost the RAM before even bothering.

BTW, any chance that CPU is socketed, removable? I've had great success replacing CPUs in old laptops. Upgrades can be hilariously cheap on eBay. Cheap as in, $10 for a far better chip. Send me the exact model and we'll look.

While we're at it, a new battery is probably cheap, like $20. But that goes in last.

SATA started rolling out in drive around 2003/2004, it's possible. My 08 laptop had a Sata ssd.

Just throw Arch/ Alpine on it with sway. If you need a full DE, LXQT is pretty light weight but even plasma is not too expensive tbh.

sata is not supported. let alone ssds. do you know even the slightest thing about hardware???

It's just a guess, you never did tell us what specific model Asus you have there.

Not that you're curious but the model I have here is a Asus F8S which seems to be closer to 2008 era e.g. https://www.newegg.com/black-asus-f8-series-f8sn-d1/p/N82E16834220331?srsltid=AfmBOorI8VyoX35T6xRUD0e-Mbg1Q6IFui9Xgy6RlsB2sLLhfuFvIePr

In 2008 laptops did have SATA connections. I have in fact plugged in SATA SSDs into old laptops and desktops from that era and earlier. I doubt 3 years is too much difference but again, no idea on the specific hardware you're looking at so maybe your specific laptop is one of the last generation that was ATA only, not SATA (?)

Also, 4gb ram back then was a lot, like 64 gb today

Yes granted 3 years earlier 4GB would have cost more for sure. 1GB RAM is the bare minimum for Windows 7 Home 32-bit so I guess this thing you have was already at the bare minimum.

The rest of my comment still stands, it will work perfectly fine as a Linux server with CLI only though that's not quite the answer you want.

1.73 ghz Intel Celeron M

EDIT: The CPU you've got is 64-bit capable I believe https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/29733/intel-celeron-m-processor-530-1m-cache-1-73-ghz-533-mhz-fsb-socket-m/specifications.html

So the laptop should have been spec'd for 2GB RAM minimum normally. Thinking you're not reading the full RAM correctly e.g. if in Windows maybe run CPU-Z or similar to actually see what the full RAM and individual RAM sticks claim to have.